Family Organizer by Picniic Reviews

by Johnacanrana

My girlfriend and I decided to try to use FamilyOrganizer to manage things around the house as far as chores and grocery lists since we’re constantly in and out. We went with it because it was free but soon found that to take full advantage of it and use the section for, say, recipes you have to for mm out $15/month. Not feeling that. So we tried it for a little while. What annoyed me to know end was every time one of us would open FamilyOrganizer , the other’s phone would be hit with (and I wish I was exaggerating) 45 notifications for tasks-no matter if they are marked “done” or not. That was possibly the most annoying thing about FamilyOrganizer . Picture trying to sleep, one person opens FamilyOrganizer to put in the grocery list “milk” because we’re running out, and at 1:00 AM the other person is woken up by their phone vibrating nonstop for the length of 45 app notifications. Notes to the programmers and creators: (1) KILL THE NOTIFICATIONS BUG. It is one of the main reasons I’ve decided to uninstall your app and seldom use it when I had it on my phone. (2) Come to your senses and realize that $15/month is insane. I’m sure there’s someone willing to pay it and for them I have beachfront property in Death Valley.

by RosieButtonCups

FamilyOrganizer is entirely useless without their heinously overpriced premium upgrade. Without it, all you have are shared calendars (which are visually cluttered, all one color no matter the type of note or who it’s for, and something better achieved for free with a shared Google calendar) and shopping lists. Every other feature including noting meals on the calendar is premium only. And of course the premium version is a fat recurring monthly charge.

On top of that, almost all settings are also premium only, meaning you can’t organize the widgets within FamilyOrganizer or even decide what day of the week the calendar display starts without paying the monthly fee. FamilyOrganizer looks awful, not just from an aesthetic standpoint but from the purpose of trying to glean information from it. Everything has the same size, color, layout, and emphasis.

So screw it. Even the paid version of FamilyOrganizer doesn’t do anything that isn’t already done *better* with other free services. I thought having them all merged into one dashboard would be cute, but again even with premium features it’s a visually cluttered mess. Skip it.

by Whytherenonicknamesleft

Update: FamilyOrganizer no longer works for any of my family members. The groceries app WAS Amazing at one point, now it no longer shows the same list on everyone’s phone. It doesn’t sync up. For spending 50$ on it for a year I’m pretty upset with it. I check regularly for an update and nothing. I would uninstall it but that’s 50$ down the crapper

I mainly was interested in FamilyOrganizer for the family locator since we have a irresponsible teen mom who likes to come and go as she pleases. My family was all for it. We just wish there wasn’t an option on the continuous gps location. Since you’re able to turn it off. The gps is also off on location 50% of the time and it turns off on its own.

Everything else I love about FamilyOrganizer. Sharing the pictures is great when out at amusement park, the calendar is perfect for managing everyone’s appointments, the locker is great for the in the family who mooch off others Netflix/Hulu/prime accounts.

by Mmmoxy

I’ve been looking for a while for an app to use that would sync calendars, lists, notes and other info with my partner, as well as messaging - basically a way to have everything in the same place. Picniic ticks all the boxes (although having chat/messaging separate from the “Family News” which also includes a running feed of anything done on FamilyOrganizer would be better), but about half the features are premium only, and the way that’s implemented is awful. Unless you’re willing to pay for a year in advance (currently $50, which is at a discount), the premium upgrade is $15 a month, which seems absurdly exorbitant. Meanwhile, if you don’t upgrade, they leave all the pro features on the home page right where they would be if you had access, with icons as large or larger than the usable features. I would probably be willing to pay for the premium service at a more reasonable price, or be less irritated with the premium features being on my home page, if they were minimized a bit. As it is now, though, it feels like FamilyOrganizer is shoving the features I can’t use into my face all the time. I hope Picniic will either change the interface or make the yearly cost available month to month ($5 per month at their regular rates), as it’s the only app I’ve found so far that has these features and is not exclusive to iOS, but in the meantime, I’m looking elsewhere.

by LFS25

Picniic has the potential to be such a great app. I love having the whole family’s lists and calendars in one place. But there are a few things about it that really bug me, and will significantly limit my usage. One, it drains my battery like crazy. I was at the grocery store this morning (my phone was fully charged the night before), and I was using the shopping list. Within a minute of each other, I got notifications that I was at 20 and then 10% battery. I had to scramble to find a piece of paper to write out my list before my phone died. Two, the feature I probably use the most is the to do list, but you can only have so many items on the todo list at once. If you try to add too many, it asks you to buy the premium subscription. I don’t use it enough to justify that. Three, it’s constantly asking me to leave a review. That’s whatever, but the constant pop up is annoying.

by Qwhip

I’ve been using Cozi for a long time. What it’s lacking I hoped to find in Picniic. I took a great bit of time transferring everything over as there didn’t seem to be a reliable way to import. I even made the leap to the annual plan. The interface is attractive, the meal planning convenient, and the calendar adequate. But the To Do list is so cumbersome I don’t even know how to describe it. Things can’t be re-ordered or settings made to have done items automatically disappear. Nozbe is free and ten times better in this area, along with a half a dozen other apps. Entering new items takes too long. I miss Cozi’s to-do list and theirs was far from perfect. Hoping it gets cleaned up and more usable. To claim the price is worth it because it replaces so many apps is only true if you stop using other apps. Turned off my renewal for next year. Hoping things look up soon.

by Nykao

My husband and I decided to use Picniic to help make sure our kids were following thru on their chores so I really only care about the To-Do capabilities. We tried the trial but it only allows you to add up to 15 things which with 3 kids doesn’t give you the chance to experience the flaws.

1) when I have a to-do that I want to assign to all 3 of them, like pick up your clutter at 8 pm everyday, you’d think I could add all 3 of them to the item. You can assign it to all 3, but as soon as the first person checks off that they completed their to-do, it’s crossed off for the other two.

2) there is no way to either have the view focus on due now and over due tasks. Because I have a consistent chore schedule, I set up reoccurring to-dos for each kid. FamilyOrganizer only shows the list in descending chronological order which means that over due and to-dos due today are buried at the bottom and a task due a week from now is at the top.

3) when I have a reoccurring item and Is marked it as complete, it disappears from the view. So the kids can’t look on Friday to see what’s due on Saturday if they want to be proactive. A to-do that reoccurs every Sunday and Thursday won’t show up as a task until Thursday.

My kids hate FamilyOrganizer and I have just gone back to using the native calendar app.

Great concept, poor execution.

by Krilluminati

So I was looking for an app for my boyfriend and I that had shared calendars, lists and to dos. This is currently the best shared app for families when you take, not only the look, but also all of the extra content into consideration. That being said, not everyone’s going to use all of the products packed in this one app, and while I’ve used more than I thought I would, I’d like the ability to get rid of tiles I’m not using. I hate seeing them there. Also, $100 probably isn’t too bad a price for FamilyOrganizer, but why only allow for a one time annual payment? Just do what other apps do and charge a dollar or two more for the monthly option than the $8.99 that the $100 annually equates to when broken down monthly? I have deleted and redownloaded FamilyOrganizer 5 times in the last month because I’ve been contemplating if it’s worth it. To be honest, you could find other apps just as good as what you get without premium.

by Ckw363

I really love the concept of FamilyOrganizer. The to do lists, being able to assign tasks to family members, shopping list, meal planner... all awesome.
But... it doesn't sync in the right time zone with team snap on my computer which is very annoying. It also seems to unsync with TeamSnap frequently. I would like to be able to hide & bring up certain calendars that we sync with since we end up with double events. Also, we've had several situations where family members calendars didn't update with events, so they didn't know about something. Our ical however, was right.
It needs improvements before they should be charging this much for FamilyOrganizer . I'm disappointed that I'm still using ical as a backup and not quite sure this is going to cut it.

by Katie Lawton

My husband and I absolutely love everything about FamilyOrganizer. You have taken everything that we needed help with and to coordinate and rolled it all into one wonderful package. My one issue is that we can’t afford to purchase the year license at this time, which really makes me sad. My kids have started chores and been locked from WiFi until they have completed the work, and that has really been the absolute best. One issue is that we have four pets and three kids, and we weren’t able to individualized the way I’d hoped in terms of putting ferrets and dogs info into app. I also couldn’t add our three grandparents to the family info which I would have liked to do because my mom does a lot for and with my kids, but we were only allowed so many per family. What happens when a larger family purchases FamilyOrganizer? My mom and I would really benefit from a shared calendar especially but she isn’t going to purchase her own license.

Love you Picnic though!! You have absolutely done the impossible and I now have app envy since I’m unable to have the full version.

by BeyondBusyMomof4

We are a busy family of six with kids in high school and middle school. Multiple sporting events and other family activities to track. FamilyOrganizer is working great for us to keep track of where each other is at, share events with extended family such as grandparents and my sister. I love the auto check in places for the days that the kids forget to update me that they have been dropped off where they are supposed to be. FamilyOrganizer is easy to use so my kids have been adding their own events which helps me know and stay on top of what’s going on. I have show FamilyOrganizer to several friends and now have my sister using it so we can share our kids game schedules. I have had a couple of questions and concerns and their customer service has been great at getting back to me within 24 or less hours. And where they are able they have fix the issues right away. Keep up the good work!!

by Mrsmiller147

I wasn’t sure if I would use FamilyOrganizer often because I’ve tried others like “bug me” and really find them annoying or forget about them. FamilyOrganizer however, gently reminds you every evening if you want to plan something for tomorrow. The feature where you can speak into the MIC is also really easy because i can make reminders on my way home from work by just speaking(then it organizes it all for you). One thing i would add for my personal preference is for me to “check off” or “complete” a reminder so i don’t dismiss the notification and forget about it. Overall I ended up using FamilyOrganizer way more than i thought! And getting my husband FamilyOrganizer was hard but now he’s included in ALL events and is never left out or “not told” about upcoming events :)

by Aleahkenzigeorge

Great app! Keeps my fam connected! With everyone having a hectic schedule.. FamilyOrganizer gives us the opportunity to see who has what going on ie; concerts (kiddos) sports games (kiddos) date nights! Picniic also let’s me create grocery lists, my husband can log in before he leaves work and pick it up on the way home if he feels like it.. FamilyOrganizer is super helpful, even just simple reminders!! Let me tell you, it has saved a lot of fighting between my husband and I. The key is everyone has to keep active and use FamilyOrganizer ...if you download it and not utilize it then it will not benefit you...is right in front of you ! Use it!!
*update* they contacted me to Thank me for the review!! How awesome is that! That really shows that the makers of FamilyOrganizer care and are diligently on top of things! WOW! Thanks for responding to me! Made me smile! 😊

by Eliza Schyluer

FamilyOrganizer helps my family of eight balance our extremely busy lives. I love how the calendar is color coated for each person. The info locker really helps with the technically challenged members of the family keep up with important passwords and information. The shopping list is great, in my family we used to go to the grocery store multiple times a week, but the shopping list allows all members of the family update the list, so nothing gets left behind anymore.
My only down side is that you can’t rotate the screen sideways on the hour-by-hour calendar, so you can’t see every persons icon. Otherwise an amazing app, definitely recommending it for all of my friends!

by Tiggstarr

We have tried several other apps to make grocery lists to use between family members but this is the first one that works as we needed without crashing or freezing. I love how you can rearrange the aisles on the lists to customize it for your stores. We usually only keep one long list but the ability to create lists for multiple stores is there. Still haven't used the to do lists for other family members but if it functions as well as the grocery list I will be assigning chores for my family soon!! This is so much better than texting a long grocery list or having an app freeze up in the middle of shopping. Thanks!!!!!!